GENEVA, January 11. /TASS/. The Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva accused the West of double standards over its reaction to the situation in Brazil.
The mission said on its Telegram channel that Russia, just like the West, had condemned the recent riots against Brazil’s president-elect. However, the mission added that Western powers failed to offer the same reaction to the 2014 political crisis in Ukraine, which eventually led to the ouster of legitimate president Viktor Yanukovich.
"Did anyone in the West supported legitimate President Viktor Yanukovich and condemned acts of lawlessness, committed by local nationalist groups? No one did. On the contrary, European leaders immediately waived the commitments they made earlier, as guarantors of the February 21, 2014 Agreement on settling the political crisis in Ukraine, and legitimized the radicals and their unlawful seizure of power," the mission said.
"Violent armed protests, which are orchestrated from abroad and eventually lead to state coups, will never result in anything good. However, this undisputable fact is being reviewed through the lens of Western double standards every time. When those developments are beneficial for the West, they are described as ‘peace protests and the people’s right for democracy,’ when they are not - as ‘unlawful street riots,’" the mission said.
Socialist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who defeated Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff presidential election, took office as President of Brazil on January 1. The gap between the two was about 2 million votes. The ex-leader did not concede defeat, and Bolsonaro supporters flooded the streets and garrisons of the armed forces, seeking to prevent Lula da Silva from taking office. The former Brazilian president left for the United States in late December 2022.
On January 8, supporters of Brazil’s former leader Jair Bolsonaro staged clashes with the police in the country’s capital of Brasilia and broke into the buildings of the National Congress (parliament), the presidential palace and the Supreme Court. According to preliminary data, about 5,000 people took part in the riots.
Law enforcement forces dropped smoke bombs and tear gas grenades from helicopters to disperse the protesters. The police were able to retake control of the buildings and the rioters were pushed out of the central part of the city.